OS4 - This is hard!!!

[flaviosr]

Hi to all,

first of all the config:
° A1200 mobo 1D4
° "Power M-disk (HD)
° DCE FlickerMagic
° Elbox PC-Key 1200
° HyperCOM 3+ clockport
° HK Computer Vector Maus & Joystick adapter (plus)
° modification to use hard reset
° Mediator PCI 1200
+ Terratec 512i (PCI)
+ Voodoo3000 16Mb (PCI)
+ D-Link DFE-530TX (PCI)
+ Elbox Spider II USB (PCI)
° Blizzard 603+ (50/240) + 256 Mb
° IDE-Fix 97
+ Maxtor 6Y080L0-YAR & PlexWriter PX-716A (on one cable)
+ LS120 (on the other cable)

Before yesterday I had no mod for reset and the CD was a generic 40x.
I had 3 partitions on the HD (1.0 Gb + 1.5 Gb + 2.0 Gb): OS3.9 in the first, data in the second, OS4.0 in the third... ALL FUNCTIONING!!!
Funny also that I used international FFS without long names for OS4... I didn't know anything about this...
Yesterday I made the mod and I changed the CD reader and I discovered what follows:
° OS4 did not boot anymore! I received the standard 3 colours blinking (red, blu, magenta) and then OS4 went rebooting continuously on the magenta screen (magenta + black + magenta + black...);
° I cannot use a better file system than FFS international!
+ For example if I have OS3.9 with international FFS on the first partition and a blank FFS + long names on the second one and nothing else... OS3.9 does not boot!!! ERROR!!!
° my only solution is to install OS4 with FFS international and WITHOUT using the Voodoo!!! Forcing AGA!!! and this is also very strange since...
... OS4 installation is done with the Voodoo @ 800x600 and the AGA output after installation is through the Voodoo!!!

HEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have some ideas but I prefer to wait some help by you.

One note: I have not tried to remove the IDEFix since I do not have a cable 2.5 => 3.5 so I could not use an HD + CD.

Thanx to all!

[AlfaRomeo]

Sounds like a hardware fault rather than software

[flaviosr]

Sounds like a hardware fault rather than software

ARGH!!! I lost some heartbeat reading this...

The "strange" things is that OS3.9 works great!!!
Anyway it seems that the problem is that the Amiga does not like better filesystem than the standard one (FFS or DOS/03)... I am supposing that the problem is the IDEFix card.
Another problem I found is that, when I wrote the RDB with OS4, my Amiga did not like it (even if using OS3.9) while the RDB written with OS3.9 is good...

The question is: is anybody using OS4 with A1200 and with HD directly connected with the mobo (and with two units attached to the cable)?
And with IDEFix (or similar HW)?
If so, are there some special settings to do?

Thanx

[Bamiga2002]

Have you tried booting with your cd-drive disconnected?

[flaviosr]

Have you tried booting with your cd-drive disconnected?

Yes, using IDEFix and nothing changes.
No, connecting the HD directly to the mobo... but I do not have the cable right now and I would like to have some feedback before buying it!

[zylesea]

Whenever I had trouble with my Frankenamiga I completely disassembled it, booted the nakd maschine with a floppy and then tried to add one thing again after another to see when it fails.

[flaviosr]

Whenever I had trouble with my Frankenamiga I completely disassembled it, booted the nakd maschine with a floppy and then tried to add one thing again after another to see when it fails.

My problem is that I cannot do the only thing I think it's important! :-o
Using only an HD and CD without IDEFix!

[itix]

Why not dump CD drive? Is there any reason use such obsolete media in 2011?

[Karlos]

I have to admit, I share the sentiments regarding CD drives. My last os4 (beta) install was from a (remotely) mounted ISO image, I never even bothered contemplating burning it to disc.

[rvo_nl]

The question is: is anybody using OS4 with A1200 and with HD directly connected with the mobo (and with two units attached to the cable)? And with IDEFix (or similar HW)?

not sure what you mean.. but I did use IDE-Fix Express and OS4, though the drive was obviously connected to the Express, and not the mobo.
 
I documented how I installed OS4, perhaps it helps you:
 
boot from os4 disk
choose english language, netherlands (I dont recommend this ), UTC, american keyboard
start installation from os4 desktop
choose a1200, bvision, bootvga
max resolution set to 1024x768
choose idefix, floppyfix
choose base page access, disable grexfix
edit os4:kickstart/kicklayout-a1200 remove semicolon ( at the end of the line regarding 'bootdevice module'
put file in kickstart folder called 'BootDevice' with just 'hd2' without quotes *
do a warm boot
 
* my OS4 drive is called like this in HDToolBox
 
BTW Im using SFS (68k) for my drive.
 
AND dont forget the OS4 update: AmigaOS_4.0_Feburary2008_update.lha

[flaviosr]

I have to admit, I share the sentiments regarding CD drives. My last os4 (beta) install was from a (remotely) mounted ISO image, I never even bothered contemplating burning it to disc.

Well... I did not even know that it's possible... :-o Does exists a program like Daemon tools for Amiga? I read the best one is VirtualCD, is this right?

[Karlos]

Well... I did not even know that it's possible... :-o Does exists a program like Daemon tools for Amiga? I read the best one is VirtualCD, is this right?

Check Aminet for MountISO.

[motorollin]

The question is: is anybody using OS4 with A1200 and with HD directly connected with the mobo (and with two units attached to the cable)?

Yes I can confirm that this works. AmigaKit made me a custom cable with a 44 pin female connector on one end (to go the A1200 mobo), and two 40 pin female connectors (one to go to the HDD and one to the CD drive). I was able to install OS4 from CD to HDD with that setup.

And with IDEFix (or similar HW)?

Well, the reason why I had to use that cable was because the buffered interface was preventing the machine from booting OS4, causing exactly the symptoms you describe (repeatedly cycling through the red/blue/magenta boot colours).

If so, are there some special settings to do?

IIRC there's something you can edit in startup-sequence to enable the buffered interface to work. If you can edit your OS4 startup-sequence from OS3.9 then you might be able to do it. Otherwise, you'll have to reinstall without the buffered interface, edit startup-sequence, then re-attach the buffered interface.

Edit - Link to the thread where I was helped by several people to solve this problem. In particular, the post by Framiga on the bottom of page 3:

Once you have installed the whole AOS4, you can use your buffered interface.

It "seems" that the problem arise only during the installation (on some machines)

Theres a option to enable it.

look at the file SYS:Kickstart/KickLayout-A1200 at the line

; The IDE scsi.device can not autodetect IDEFix/IDEFix97/IDEFix Express
; IDE port doubler hardware. When you have such hardware installed,
; uncomment the following line by removing the leading semicolon,
; then the IDE scsi.device can use IDE drives on the second IDE port.
; CAUTION: Dont forget to add the semicolon again before removing the
; IDEFix or compatible IDE port doubler hardware or your machine may
; not boot anymore!
;
;MODULE Kickstart/A1200/ATAPIismajik

uncomment "MODULE Kickstart/A1200/ATAPIismajik" and it "should" work.

--
moto

[flaviosr]

Yes I can confirm that this works. AmigaKit made me a custom cable with a 44 pin female connector on one end (to go the A1200 mobo), and two 40 pin female connectors (one to go to the HDD and one to the CD drive). I was able to install OS4 from CD to HDD with that setup.


Well, the reason why I had to use that cable was because the buffered interface was preventing the machine from booting OS4, causing exactly the symptoms you describe (repeatedly cycling through the red/blue/magenta boot colours).


IIRC there's something you can edit in startup-sequence to enable the buffered interface to work. If you can edit your OS4 startup-sequence from OS3.9 then you might be able to do it. Otherwise, you'll have to reinstall without the buffered interface, edit startup-sequence, then re-attach the buffered interface.

Edit - Link to the thread where I was helped by several people to solve this problem. In particular, the post by Framiga on the bottom of page 3:



--
moto

Really thanx!!! I have to leave home for some days for work but, for sure, I will try next weekend!!!

[motorollin]

NP! Hope it works out for you. I *might* still have the cable I used, somewhere in the loft. So if you need it, I'll try to find it for you.

--
moto